Our take home assignments in this class have been very interesting. They are supposed to be elementary school questions, we are supposed to do the work and explain the problem. Come at it from every possible angle and address every possible question we could foresee a student asking. My first problem is that I do not feel these questions are elementary school questions. Even taking into consideration that elementary school does include sixth grade, I think most of these problems are too difficult for elementary school. I feel most elementary school kids would be very confused if I gave them these take home questions and told them to work it out. I have given these questions to a few of my elementary aged children that I babysit and children at my daycare and most of them had no clue. This upsets me because we are supposed to be dealing with elementary school aged children.
Other than doing the work, we are supposed to explain every little detail of the problems. I understand that we as future teachers need to know how to explain work and how to come at it from different point of views because children learn differently. I do believe you should teach each topic two different ways in order to give more students the opportunity to succeed. What bothers me is that how are we supposed to answer questions that have not been asked of us? Teachers do not answer every detailed question unless it has been asked by a student. If no one is asking how can you foresee every possible question. I also feel that some of my explanations were full and very well thought out. Somehow I would still get points off. My papers were always four or even five pages long. How long can these explanations possible be? Seven Pages for a homework assignment? I am just not sure what else to do to improve my grade.
The extra credit math homework is also another thing that puzzles me in this class. Why is the homework that should be graded and we should see our mistakes on extra credit? And why is it not due until the day of the test? Wouldn't it be more useful if we actual had it due every class and we went over it quickly in class? Therefore anybody who did it and tried could get credit, and it would guarantee that we were practicing and doing the homework throughout the whole chapter. I understand that as a student you can do this on your own but I feel making the homework that directly relates to our test information required would be extremely helpful. It would give everyone credit, well everyone that did their homework and give us an opportunity to ask questions in class about it.
I just feel that homework such as the take homes or the blogs is a lot of work and takes up a lot of our time. When it isn't directly relating to the material we are being tested on. Hopefully the blogs and take homes really help our grades but I'm not sure.
I will agree that many of the problems on the take homes would NOT be asked of elementary students. However, the class was for elementary teachers, not elementary students. You need to know how to take a problem and cut it up into smaller parts. Although they may have been more involved than elementary school problems, the concepts used WERE elementary.
ReplyDeleteI also see your point about homework. The reason I made it extra credit is because, in the past, students wouldn't do it and then it would affect their grades. At least this way there is extra incentive to do it. Also, the answers are in the back of the book to check accuracy.